APPG Freedom of Religion or Belief report on persecution in North Korea published

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG FORB) has published findings of a Parliamentary Inquiry into persecution of religion and belief in North Korea. The report, titled Religion and Belief in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, includes witness accounts of the horrific human rights abuses suffered by religious and belief minorities in the country.

The report makes a number of recommendations to the British Government, including that it pursue the referral of the DPRK to the International Criminal Court to account for its treatment of its citizens.

Baroness Berridge, chairman of the APPG FORB, commented:

“For the past sixty-plus years, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has committed egregious human rights violations – the details of which would turn the stomach of even the most hardened person. This includes banishing those who follow a religion to remote places, incarcerating them, subjecting them to torture in labour camps, and murdering Christians for merely possessing a Bible.

“For many years North Korea has been viewed as an impossible case, but now the international community is finally beginning to afford the country the attention its people so desperately need.”